Mistakes doom Duke baseball in series opener against Tar Heels

Against the most high-powered offensive team Duke has faced yet this season, the Blue Devil defense did not rise to the occasion.

Duke committed a season-high five errors in an 11-2 loss to No. 11 North Carolina at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park Friday night. The Tar Heels capitalized on several costly mistakes to break a 2-2 tie with a five-run sixth inning highlighted by a two-run double down the right-field line by sophomore Zack Gahagan that grazed the glove of a diving Jack Labosky at first base.

“We let our youth show. I felt like we had some guys that kind of got caught up in the atmosphere a little bit tonight. They got caught up in the color of the other jersey,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “We were wide-eyed at times, and we allowed the game to speed up on us.”

Tyler Lynn led off the top of the sixth with a single up the middle, and Logan Warmoth then laid down a bunt on the first-base side of the infield. Duke starter Bailey Clark fielded the bunt, but Labosky had already taken a few steps toward the ball and could not find the bag to record the out as he backpedaled to receive the throw.

“I don’t think we made too many physical errors. I think a lot of it was mental—either not knowing where to go with the ball, where to be,” Labosky said. “That was the first time I think all season we’ve had an inning like that where no one really communicated, but it’s a learning experience.”

Senior Eli Sutherland promptly roped a single into left to chase Clark from the game and score Lynn, and sophomore southpaw Mitch Stallings came in to try to stop the bleeding with runners on first and second. But another miscue by the Blue Devils (10-8, 1-3 in the ACC) made the inning go from bad to worse.

The Tar Heels (15-2, 3-1) elected to bunt again, and for the second time in the frame, Duke could not get anybody out. Labosky charged the slow roller up the first-base line and tried to get the lead runner at third, but Warmoth slid in safely ahead of the throw to set the table for Gahagan, who went 3-for-5 at the plate with four RBIs to lead North Carolina.

Stallings settled down after Gahagan’s double to finish the inning, but not before the Tar Heels added two more runs on a single by freshman Brandon Riley and an RBI groundout.

“What guys have to understand is if you just minimize it—you keep it to a single run or even two runs, worst-case scenario—you’re still right in the ballgame, and you give your offense a chance to have an answer,” Pollard said. “Guys panicked a little bit and we just didn’t communicate, and that inning was emblematic of how we reacted throughout the entire ballgame.”

North Carolina tagged Duke’s bullpen for a run in the seventh and three runs in the eighth, taking advantage of more mistakes to pile on runs with only one hit during the eighth inning. The Blue Devils committed their third error on a pickoff throw to first after a one-out walk to advance Kyle Datres to third, and an ill-advised throw home on a routine grounder to second baseman Ryan Day to try to retire the lead runner was not in time.

Duke stayed close for the first five innings, rallying from an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth. Freshman Jimmy Herron led off the frame with a double that hit the left field wall on one hop, and Labosky drilled a 3-2 pitch against the Blue Monster on a drive that just stayed fair to score Herron.

Freshmen Griffin Conine and Zack Kone struck out and fouled out while Labosky stood at second, but junior Cris Perez drove in the game-tying run with a line drive into left field for a single. The Miami native went 2-for-3 with a double after going 4-for-4 with three doubles Tuesday against Maryland-Eastern Shore, raising his batting average to .282 after an early-season slump.

“He’s swinging the bat with confidence…. That was a huge hit there with two outs in the fourth, and he’s earned the right to go back in there tomorrow,” Pollard said. “He’s a guy who gives us an extra-base hit threat every time he goes to the plate, and he’s driving some baseballs and dialed in right now.”

That was all the offense the Blue Devils could muster, though, as Zac Gallen struck out 10 batters in seven innings to remain unbeaten this season for the Tar Heels.

Duke will hope to build on the positives from the first half of Friday’s game and learn from the last four innings when it tries to even the series Saturday at 1 p.m.

“We ought to be pretty relaxed tomorrow. That’s as bad as we can play,” Pollard said. “We got that out of our system, and we’ve got to go out tomorrow and just relax and focus on our jobs.”